Daily Rituals of Writers: William Faulkner

Like many great writers of his time, William Faulkner wrote all his novels in longhand: “I’ve got to feel the pencil and see the words at the end of the pencil,” he explained. However his handwriting was so small and illegible that even the great author had trouble reading his own handwriting. Consequently, while the words were still fresh in his mind, he would sit at a typewriter, sometimes for a period as long as 13 hours, to type out what he wrote that day.